An aerial survey team from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute made an extremely rare find off the Outer Banks last Thursday, as a killer whale was spotted off Kitty Hawk.
The Florida-based institute’s team focuses their work off our coast on surveying activity of endangered North Atlantic right whales, as part of their mission to preserve the species and other marine life.
In a Facebook post, they did not say how far the orca was located from shore when it was spotted on March 13.
They noted it’s the first time they have spotted one in the five years they have been conducting visual surveys using small planes above the waters off the Outer Banks.
During their daily flights each winter, institute scientists warn mariners from North Carolina down to Florida about whale locations to avoid vessel strikes and alert rescuers about North Atlantic right whales entangled in fishing gear, two leading causes of mortality for the species.
